


Topological

by IAmANonnieMouse



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Mathematics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22902319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmANonnieMouse/pseuds/IAmANonnieMouse
Summary: Arthur stared. “So I summoned a demon,” he said, “that exists to help me?”“Support,” Eames corrected, “but yes. As I said, I am at your service.”
Relationships: Arthur/Eames (Inception)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 128





	Topological

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FiaMac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiaMac/gifts).



> Fia is a horrible influence and this fic exists entirely because of her!

“Why is there a zero?” Arthur asked. “I can’t divide this by a _zero_!”

His roommate twitched and pulled out an earbud. “Did you say something?”

Arthur sighed. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” his roommate said, and he put his earbud back in.

Arthur uncapped his pen and drew a giant X over the entire paper in front of him. It was wrong, somehow. There was a zero there, _somehow._ And until mathematicians discovered a way to divide by zero, it would be wrong forever.

“Fucking zeros,” Arthur muttered.

He decided to switch gears. He put away that homework, and pulled out the problems for his Monday class. 

They had just started the section on heat flow through a non-insulated cylinder, and that lack of insulation was making their equations absolutely _hideous._

Arthur looked at the first question and decided to start by drawing the diagram. First, a cylinder…then shade in the cross-sectional area…then—

A shadow fell across his page. Arthur frowned, and looked up, and promptly drew a line across his paper as he jumped a mile.

“Hello!” the man looming over Arthur’s desk said with a smile. “The name’s Eames. At your service.”

Arthur blinked. “Who are you, and how did you get in my room?”

“What?” his roommate asked, pulling out his earbud again. “Sorry, man, if you’re trying to get my attention, throw something at me.”

Arthur looked at his roommate, then at the man, then back at his roommate. “Um,” he said. “I was just talking to myself, ignore me.”

“Yeah, I get that,” his roommate said. “You do you, man.” He put his earbud back in.

Arthur turned to the man, who was still standing by Arthur’s desk, and still smiling.

“Who are you?” he asked again.

“I told you,” the man said. “I’m Eames, and I’m at your service.”

“And how did you get in here?” Arthur asked.

Eames pointed at Arthur’s math notes. “You summoned me, darling.”

Arthur blinked. “I…what, are you a demon or something, from the ninth circle of hell?”

“Only the seventh, darling,” Eames corrected. “And I’m from an n-dimensional system, to be precise.”

Arthur decided he was going crazy from staring at math for too long. “I’m just gonna hydrate,” he said, “and hope this all goes away.”

He started to stand to go to his minifridge, but Eames stopped him and held out a water bottle.

“That,” Arthur said, “was definitely not in your hand a second ago.”

“Of course not,” Eames said. “It was in your fridge.”

Arthur slowly reached out and took the bottle. He opened it, drank. Blinked a couple times. Yep, Eames was still there.

“It’s finally happened,” he said, nodding. “I’ve gone batshit.”

Eames sighed. “You humans are so dramatic. Sit down before you fall down.”

For lack of anything better to do, Arthur sat. Eames perched on the edge of his desk, directly on top of Arthur’s papers. “You’re not insane in the _least,_ darling. You’re just overworked and underfed. And we demons of the n-dimensional system live to support those young, tired, overworked and underfed intellectuals like yourself.”

Arthur stared. “So I summoned a demon,” he said, “that exists to help me?”

“Support,” Eames corrected, “but yes. As I said, I am at your service.”

He spread his hands grandly. Arthur politely pretended not to notice when his arm slid through Arthur’s desk _and_ closet.

“Okay,” Arthur said. “Then, can you solve this problem for me?”

Eames pursed his lips. “Sorry, no can do. That would be cheating.”

Arthur snorted. “You’re a demon.”

“An ethical one,” Eames said.

“Oh,” Arthur said drily, “I wasn’t sure if they had ethics in n-dimensional spaces.”

Eames nodded. “Ethics transcend dimensions.”

Arthur laughed and decided to just accept it. Stranger things had happened. He leaned back in his chair and stretched. It felt like he had a permanent crick in his neck from being hunched over his notes and textbooks so much.

“Just relax,” he heard Eames murmur, and moments later, a pair of warm hands began to knead at his shoulders and the back of his neck.

“Oh, god, that feels good,” Arthur muttered.

Eames hummed and continued the massage.

“So,” Arthur said slowly, “how did I summon you, exactly? So I can make sure I don’t do it again going forward?”

“Oh, it’s much too late for that,” Eames said blithely. “You opened up a portal.”

Arthur stiffened, then batted Eames’ hands away. “I opened a what?”

Eames resumed his perch on Arthur’s desk. “A portal to our n-dimensional space. And let me tell you, love, it was quite the adjustment, going from n dimensions to three.” He wrinkled his nose.

“So how many demons did I just set loose on the world?” Arthur asked.

Eames shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s hard to count things in n-dimensions. You lose track of who’s already been counted.”

“But, like, if you had to guess,” Arthur pressed. “You can give it to me fractions, or percents. How many of the demons have come through this portal, out of all the demons in your n-dimensional space? Fifty percent? Sixty?”

“Oh, no, love,” Eames said with a laugh. “All of them. Even as we speak, demons are appearing in offices and dorm rooms across the globe, offering their assistance.”

“Um, hey, Arthur?” Arthur’s roommate asked, slowly pulling out both of his earbuds. “Am I going crazy, or is there a guy in our room right now?”

Arthur glared at Eames. “Sorry,” Eames said, blushing slightly. “I got distracted. I’ll put the shields back up now, hm?”

Arthur’s roommate blinked slowly. “Alright,” he said, “you know, I think I’m really tired, man, I’m starting to see things, like, guys vanishing in thin air, so, like, I’m gonna go to bed before I start hallucinating dancing dogs or something, okay? Okay.”

And with that, he just rolled over onto his side and pulled the covers over his head.

Arthur looked at Eames and sighed. “Welp,” he said. “If you’re here, you might as well be helpful.”

Eames grinned and said, “I live to serve.”

*

Arthur pulled out his diploma to look at it again, and smile over the _summa cum laude_ etched under his name.

“Put it away before it gets dirty,” Eames fussed. “We’re getting that framed, darling, and I don’t want yesterday’s Cheeto dust marring it.”

“It’s _my_ diploma, Eames,” Arthur said, quirking a brow. “If I want Cheetos on it, I can damn well cover it with Cheetos.”

Eames snorted. “Very funny, darling. We both know you would’ve burned out long before your senior year if it weren’t for me.”

“It’s still my diploma,” Arthur said.

“Yes,” Eames said, “but it’s also mine. I earned it with every drink I fetched for you and every meal I forced you to remember to eat.” He plucked it from Arthur’s hands and gently slid it back into its envelope. “So! Whatever shall we do next, darling? Graduate school? A PhD?”

Arthur groaned. “Don’t even start. I want to go home and sleep for a year.”

“Oh.” Eames visibly drooped. “Well. Okay. If that’s what you really want.”

Arthur rolled his eyes and nudged Eames with his shoulder. “It won’t really be year, you know. More like a night. And when I wake up, you can show me that secret list you made of colleges I should apply to. But only _after_ I’ve gotten my sleep.”

“Whatever you say, darling,” Eames said with a smile. “I am ever at your service.”


End file.
